Here's the route, road closures and fest info for RAGBRAI in Waterloo

Amie Rivers
Sun July 11 2021
Posted Jul 19, 2021
1,195

It’s been a long time coming — a year-and-a-half since Waterloo was announced as an overnight town on the COVID-delayed RAGBRAI route last year — and now it’s nearly upon us.

Tens of thousands of cyclists will stream into downtown Waterloo from the north July 28, have a big downtown party, camp for the night and leave the next morning to the east.

“We are 18 days until folks hit Waterloo, so we’re excited to put our best foot forward and welcome 15,500 plus,” said Tavis Hall, director of both Experience Waterloo and the city’s RAGBRAI committee.

The committee held two virtual town hall meetings Friday. “It’s going to be a really good opportunity for our community to sort of show out,” Hall said.

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“We’re getting close here,” said RAGBRAI state director Dieter Drake. “Eighteen days — I can remember when it was 500-plus. We’ve been waiting a long time to get to Waterloo.”

Whether you’ll be joining the fun or just trying to figure out how to get to work in the morning, here are the campsites, road closures and festival details you need to know:

Camping

The main campground will be at Exchange Park, which will hold around 7,000 riders, Hall said. Sans Souci Island will hold another 4,000, and any overflow will be at Tibbitts Park.

Those with recreational vehicles will camp at Central Middle School, while “primary charter campgrounds” — those helping to put on RAGBRAI — will be at Water Works Fields south of Hoing-Rice softball complex. Families with kids will camp primarily at Lincoln Elementary School.

Downtown festivities

Everything from Washington Street to the Cedar River, as well as from U.S. Highway 63 to West Fourth Street, will be the general festival footprint. All roads within that will be closed from 6 a.m. Wednesday, July 28, through 6 a.m. Thursday, July 29, with some roads within that closed starting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 27, for set-up.

Beer and food vendors will be up and running by noon.

“If folks are working downtown, swing by, grab lunch,” Hall said. “If you’ve got a real cool boss, grab a beverage.”

Waterloo won’t host as many mobile food vendors as overnight towns usually have, Hall said, and that’s by design.

“We’re doing that intentionally in order to drive traffic to existing restaurants downtown,” he said, noting the last year has been difficult, and the local economy was a top priority of Experience Waterloo.

Live musicstarts at 3 p.m. with hip-hop duo The Diplomats on the Riverloop Expo stage, followed by rock cover band Stackhouse at 5:30 p.m. On the second RiverLoop Amphitheatre stage, power rock trio Prone to Jones starts at 5 p.m., followed by Kevin Burt at 7:30 p.m.

The Prince cover band The Purple Xperience caps off the night on the Expo stage at 9 p.m., and music will wrap up at 11 p.m.

There will also be activities like “human foosball,” bean bag toss and yard games, pedal cart races, axe throwing by Hurling Hatchet, a pie-eating contest between NPR and the Des Moines Register and a youth bicycle giveaway.

The festival is free for everyone, not just riders, and public entrances will be at Jefferson and West Fourth streets as well as Commercial and West Second streets.

Road closures

Hall said he expects to see the bulk of cyclists come into town July 28 from 10 a.m. through 6 p.m.

They’ll enter city limitscoming south along Wagner Road, travel east on West Big Rock Road and south on Burton Avenue to head west on Conger Street. They’ll cross the Cedar River and go east and south on River Road before heading east on Commercial Street and into the festival grounds.

Wagner and Big Rock roads will be “complete closures” to vehicular traffic, Hall said, as well as Burton Avenue to Airline Highway. But the rest of Burton, between Airline and West Parker, will allow for vehicular traffic going northbound only, due to the number of homes and businesses there, Hall said, and Waterloo Police Department officers will control the intersections for cross traffic.

“It’s necessary for us to minimize the interactions between bicycles and cars,” he said. “Sixteen thousand bikes is a lot of bikes.”

South of West Parker, Burton Avenue will return to a complete vehicular closure, and Conger, River and Commercial will also be complete closures until midnight that night, Hall said.

The “out route,” when cyclists leave town Thursday, July 29, will follow Burton Avenue south from the campgrounds to Park Road, then south on Fairview Street and east on Lafayette Street until it leaves the city.

Burton, Park and Fairview will be completely closed to vehicles as will a portion of Lafayette Street from Zuma Street to the city limit line, though residents will be able to cross at intersections with the help of WPD, Hall said. Vehicular traffic will be allowed to travel westbound on Lafayette Street from Lane to Zuma streets, however.

There will be no parking allowed on Lafayette Street between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Thursday, Hall said.

“Ultimately, this is an opportunity for us to showcase our city and our welcoming nature, so there will be some delays and some minor inconvenience,” Hall said. “I have all the confidence in the world we’re going to show we’re a hospitable community.”